Voice-Over Tip - The writer didn’t think their words suck… you shouldn’t either.

April 1, 2008

I can’t tell you the innumerable (that is a word right?) times that some douchebag of an “actor” waltzes into an audition situation and the first or second thing that slips out of their mouth is:

“God, this copy is such crap. Who writes this shit? How do they expect anyone to say this?”

This is also about the same time that I think:

“Dude, you’re a grown ass man (or woman) who GETS PAID TO READ WORDS FROM A PAGE!! You don’t even have to memorize the words like an on-camera actor. GET OVER IT!”

And it’s usually not just one occasional VO person who acts this way towards the occasional VO script. These are generally repeat offenders who enter the recording stage regularly with a huge chip on their shoulder (pick your internal pre-existing psychological nightmare: their on-camera acting career never really took off, their parents had bigger and better careers than them, their parents never had any careers, they’re too lazy to do anything else, this is just something to pay the bills until their piss poor music careers take off, etc.)

The point is that these are generally unhappy people with very limited skills whose top goals all revolve around feeding into this fame game rat race that seems to dominate our modern day culture.

Holy jeez, I just went off on a whole tangent that I don’t really quite know what it’s all about. I need some therapy. Quick, here’s something random to view while I clear my mind and get back to the subject at hand.

What a great song from George! “The fuzz gonna come and claim you!”

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Now tangent free!

The copywriter didn’t sit in his/her cubicle and think: “Wow, I just wanna write some bad, unintelligible copy. My soul yearns to write some commercial crap copy. Can’t wait!” No, they didn’t think this.

Chances are they actually put some amount (however small) of thought and effort into it and despite there being a better way to communicate the intended message, it doesn’t take away from the fact that there is indeed a message.

It’s in finding what this message is and becoming the vessel in which to deliver this deciphered message that is the job of the voice-over talent. And it is only in this process that said vessel ceases to be just merely another literate douchebag with a voice and truly becomes not only a voice-over talent but a real life voice-over actor.

Look, no matter what your personal opinion is of the copy, if you enter the audition stage with any negativity, you’ve already lost the potential job and you’re just wasting a lot of peoples’ times. If you can’t get over this, just go home.

As long as great scenes like this exist, no other actor (VO or otherwise) can ever say that they can’t take anything on the written page seriously.

Okay. That’s enough for today.

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Voice-Over Tip - Pick someone specific to talk to.

March 28, 2008

Another common trap a lot of “professional” voice-over actors fall into is not mentally picking anyone specific to speak to when reading their copy. They figure, “hey, I’ve read Cameron’s other tip and I get it. I know how to read. All I have to do is read the words on the page and it’s really up to the decision makers to pick the right voice (ie. me).”

While there is a certain amount of truth to this, it doesn’t hurt to go above and beyond just a typical “read the words” approach to improve your odds. I’ve heard and read some unscientific statistics that something like 800 voices audition for one spot. I know that places I’ve worked at submit an average of 25-40 VO auditions for a typical radio or TV spot. Now multiply that by the number of citywide, nationwide and now internet wide agencies in the mix and 800 may be a low estimate.

So, what do you do to improve your voice-over read?

First off, and most MOST importantly, read this.

Second, and almost as important, is to pick someone to speak to. Usually one of your close friends.

Friends TV show poster

Your friends will be there for you and your VO read!

That’s the current VO tone that most buyers are looking for. That’s what’s “in”. The most common specs on any single piece of commercial copy will be:

    1) “Conversational”
    2) “Non-Announcery”
    3) “White or Caucasian”

Seriously. It’s not a joke.

Now, how do you sound like all three? You deliver the lines the way you would speak to a really close friend. This conveys a feeling of warmth, familiarity and an ease in the tone from the speaker. It gets away from the hard sell, the aggressive sales pitch and the smarmy attitude that all advertisers work to stay away from.

The idea behind this is that most people base a lot of their monetary decisions from trusted word of mouth and keep a bigger wall of defense up against “salespeople” types. Advertisers know this. They spend and gamble billions of dollars on this very philosophy.

So be a friend to your listener. Speak to them as if you’re offering some trusted advice. You may just improve your chances of booking that VO gig that pays you to read words off a sheet of paper.

To be continued…

PS: That “Friends” reference above is super-gay. I don’t know what I was thinking. I wanted to try to go for a little “main stream likable” thing. It obviously doesn’t suit me very well.

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Posted by cap

Voice-Over Tip - The ability to be literate doesn’t hurt.

March 24, 2008

I’ve been involved with the hugely popular and successful voice-over industry for over five years now. I’ve been an agent’s assistant, an agency talent director, a private talent director, a demo producer, and even the dreaded voice-over talent agent himself. Whatever my personal opinions are of this industry as a whole I can’t deny all the positive people, skills, lessons and growth I’ve experienced throughout my tenure. It will forever be a significant part of me.

But it boggles my mind how still to this day I have actors not know how to read words on a page! Or maybe just read in general?

You’re reading this entry right now. Try to read it out loud. Try to read just this paragraph from beginning to end out loud to yourself. Go ahead. I’ll wait until you’re done. No big deal. I promise that I’ll be right here when you’re all done reading this paragraph and just this paragraph alone. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna go make myself one of these while you finish up. So do it. Read just this paragraph out loud to yourself. Hell, put some emotion into it. Be conversational. Non-accouncery. Try to be caucasian (that’s what the majority of copy / scripts actually ask for). Do it and when you’re done I’ll check back in with you.

When you’re done reading that paragraph here’s something to check out until I get back with my PB&J sammy.


Bizarro world circa 1984.

All done? Good. So, how many times did you find yourself flubbing a word or having trouble pronouncing anything from the previous paragraph?

When I tell you that many “trained actors” can’t even get through that without doing six or seven takes, I really mean more like 10 or 12. AND THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE TO MEMORIZE LINES!

“But I’m an actor. My calling in life is acting. If you need a reader, maybe you should work with a reader or contact a talent agency that specializes in readers. But I, sir, am an actor. Reading… is for readers. Reading is for readers.

Okay, so most actors don’t really say that. But when I do ask them if they actually looked over their sides before they get to the audition, they look at me with that exact statement in mind. This thought is then quickly replaced by another thought of this:

Please, someone tell me whatever happened to this guy!

So first and foremost. Please learn how to read if you not only want be a voice-over actor, but maybe you want to be an on-camera actor. Perhaps a singer? Maybe a dancer? What about one of those modern day celebrities who don’t do anything productive?

Reading is fundamental.

Get hooked on phonics.

If you can accomplish this the rewards are endless.

Hell, if you don’t want to take my word for it, listen to his zany bitch who spread for this guy in this flick.

Take it away Isabella!

Here endeth today’s lesson.

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Posted by cap